Honda unveils IndyCar aero kit
CULVER CITY, Calif. -- It's not often that people see the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion intently taking photographs of the car he's about to drive.
Then again, it's not often that a racing series begins a new era.
Honda pulled back the cover on its dramatic new aero kit and a new age in IndyCar racing, unveiling a yellow No. 28 that Ryan Hunter-Reay helped put together but -- before Monday night's ceremony at an open-air restaurant seven miles from the Pacific Ocean -- hadn't seen.
Just 20 days after rival Chevrolet unveiled its new road-course/short oval aero kit, Honda Performance Development engineers revealed its design -- a multi-layered, multi-part addition to the standard Dallara chassis -- during a reception that drew Hunter-Reay and executives from IndyCar and HPD.
"This is one step, I think, in a multi-step process to bring IndyCar to that next level," Hunter-Reay told Paste BN Sports. "We're headed in the right direction. From a driver's perspective, this is as exciting as it gets. There's a whole new era in IndyCar, starting now, and we're all a part of it."
The aero kits are the latest chapter in IndyCar's effort to distinguish its manufacturers and bring technical innovation and individuality to a form of racing that had turned turned closer to "spec" -- identical cars with identical specifications -- in recent years.
Beginning with the Verizon IndyCar Series season opener March 29 at St. Petersburg, Fla., Honda and Chevrolet will field cars that, because of the aero kits, will be distinguishable from each other. The regulations surrounding the aero kits encourage experimentation and innovation, HPD officials said.
"It's all about options," HPD vice president and chief operating officer Stephen Eriksen said. "We've given teams options to tune the car to the conditions, to the driver's needs and to the track to get the most out of it. It's really going t be a fun and interesting year to learn about the creative ways the teams can run this car."
In recent years, all teams had the same Dallara DW12 chassis. In 2015, that chassis will be outfitted with either the Chevy or Honda aero kit, in any of its numerous combinations of parts and pieces designed to affect airflow over the car.
"You've got a Honda look and a Chevrolet look, but more than that, what you've really got is competition -- car competition," IndyCar president of operations and competition Derrick Walker told Paste BN Sports. "Before it was team competition because everybody had the same car. Now you've actually got performance built into different packages."
Teams and drivers will be able to test the kits beginning Friday, and weekend sessions have been booked at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, Texas Motor Speedway and Sebring International Raceway. On March 16-17, an open session will be held at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.
Hunter-Reay will test at Sebring and NOLA before heading to the Barber open test -- five testing days at three racetracks in three states.
IndyCar's rules and regulations surrounding the kits are intentionally open-ended, Eriksen said, giving teams room to experiment with the various combinations of winglets, flaps, stabilizers and other aerodynamic elements added to the base Dallara IndyCar chassis. HPD officials estimate there are more than a million different combinations available on their kits.
"It's more open than Formula One," Eriksen said. "That's the crazy part about it. It will make for a lot of interest for fans. You'll be able to see what you get when you let aerodynamicists run wild."
The key to the new kits might, indeed, be control. Two kits -- the road course/short oval kit and the yet-to-be-unveiled speedway kit -- are limited in cost to $75,000 per car. But Walker said top teams are expected to spend three times that on wind tunnel testing and other tweaking and innovation on the new bodywork.
The bottom line, of course, is whether fans will take an increased interested in IndyCar based on the new looks, competition and expected increase in performance.
"I still think the fan of today wants to see something sexy, something thats got technology and excitement -- not just one picture fits all," Walker said. "I'd be very surprised if you didn't see an uptick in the fan interest in IndyCar. This is the beginning of bringing in innovation in a managed way, so it doesn't bankrupt us like some formulas can."
Honda has 11 full-time cars with five teams scheduled so far for the 2015 season. Among them is Andretti Autosport, with Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz.
"I really look forward to being able to try all the different combinations and adjust my driving style," Hunter-Reay said. "There's so much to it. It's so in-depth. Who can get it right the quickest is going to be pretty interesting."
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